In July 1961, two groups of Freedom Riders sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) came on interstate buses to Little Rock to test the U.S. Supreme Court’s Boynton v. Virginia (1960) decision that ordered the integration of bus terminals.
The first group of Riders to Little Rock was arrested as they got off the bus, although the second group was allowed to use bus terminal facilities peacefully.
The black and white activists were a part of the Freedom Rides organized 50 years ago to integrate bus terminals in the segregated South. Their collective efforts led to an order from the Interstate Commerce Commission to desegregate bus terminals, which most Southern cities, including Little Rock, did when it came into force on November 1, 1961.
